Nearly one in seven accounting, auditing, and bookkeeping clerks in the U.S. are working past the traditional retirement age of 65, and in some metropolitan areas it’s nearly one in four, a study reveals.
Sam’s List, a directory and marketplace for financial professionals, analyzed U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey estimates for 2014 and 2024 to measure the share of people aged 65 and older who are employed in each of America’s 100 largest metro areas.
Overall, the study found that nearly one in five Americans 65 and older are employed: 11,566,481 people, or 18.9% of the 61,245,283 population in that age group. The study also revealed that 13.5% of bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks are 65 or older, compared to 7% across all U.S. occupations. That’s roughly 169,000 people out of 1,254,000, Sam’s List noted.
At 13.5%, bookkeeping clerks have the ninth-highest share of workers 65 or older among the 58 occupations on the BLS rankable list. Only eight rank above them: farmers (32.2%), school bus drivers (27.1%), clergy (20.2%), transit bus drivers (19.8%), property managers (16.5%), real estate agents (14.6%), lawyers (14.1%), and postsecondary teachers (13.6%).
The data shows that accountants and auditors are younger but still above the norm—8.4% aged 65 or older. Between the two occupations, 317,000 Americans aged 65 and over are still doing the books.
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The San Francisco metro area has the highest share in the study: 24.4% of its bookkeeping and accounting clerks are 65 or older, followed by Tampa at 21.3%, San Diego at 20.7%, and Greater Boston at 19.2%.
In nine major metros, an accounting occupation is one of the three occupations with the highest share of workers aged 65 or over, among occupations with publishable data. Bookkeeping clerks have the highest share in Tampa and San Diego, and the second highest in San Francisco, Greater Boston, and Phoenix.
Dallas-Fort Worth has the lowest share of the 14 metros with publishable data at 12.1%, followed by Philadelphia at 12.5% and Chicago at 12.7%.
“The national number tells you bookkeeping skews older. The metro numbers tell you it’s not the same story everywhere,” Kimberly Green, co-founder of Sam’s List, said in a statement. “In San Francisco it’s nearly one clerk in four; in Dallas-Fort Worth it’s closer to one in eight.”
In addition, among accountants and auditors specifically, Miami has the highest share of any metro with publishable data at 11.1% aged 65 or older, followed by the Los Angeles metro area at 10.8% and Philadelphia at 10.7%. Chicago sits at the other end of the spectrum at 6.1%.
| Rank | Metro area | Share of bookkeeping and accounting clerks aged 65+ |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Francisco metro | 24.4% |
| 2 | Tampa, FL | 21.3% |
| 3 | San Diego, CA | 20.7% |
| 4 | Greater Boston | 19.2% |
| 5 | New York metro | 17.6% |
| 6 | Washington, D.C. metro | 16.1% |
| 7 | Houston, TX | 15.1% |
| 7 | Miami, FL | 15.1% |
| 9 | Los Angeles metro | 14.5% |
| 10 | Phoenix, AZ | 14.1% |
Photo credit: Sweet Life/Unsplash
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